Inside Boxing: Boxing organizations need to put the sport first, not their own coffers

Friday

Jul 11, 2014 at 12:01 AM

The head honchos of three of the four major boxing organizations, otherwise known as the alphabet soup groups, got together for a "summit conference" two weeks ago in Cancun, Mexico.

BOB HANNA

The head honchos of three of the four major boxing organizations, otherwise known as the alphabet soup groups, got together for a "summit conference" two weeks ago in Cancun, Mexico.

The purpose, in the words of World Boxing Council (WBC) president Mauricio Sulaiman was "to seek agreement and a way to have frequent and open communication for the good of (cough, cough) boxing."

Sorry, I got something caught in my throat there.

"We need to work to find a way to avoid the confusion that exists in boxing," added Sulaiman.

Future meetings, of course, would be held in Cancun or some other vacation paradise befitting a "summit conference."

The other two boxing presidents attending the meeting were Gilberto Mendoza of the World Boxing Association (WBA) and Daryl Peoples of the International Boxing Federation (IBF). Turning down an invitaion to the summit conference was Francisco "Paco" Valcarcel of the World Boxing Organization (WBO).

The three presidents attending the meeting discussed a host of issues, we're told, mostly regarding uniformity among the three ruling bodies, but including one very important proposal — a tournament of champions to determine a "sole world champion."

Unfortunately, they didn't discuss how they were going to do it, an omission not lost on the absent Valcarcal, the WBO guy who didn't attend the meeting.

"I find it odd that my friends at the summit did not discuss the elimination of aluminum, copper, silver, interim, recess and emeritus titles," tweaked Valcarcel.

He forgot the WBA's ridiculous "super" and "regular" champions, but I think you get the point. If the powers that be truly want to avoid "confusion," they would eliminate all those bogus world titles and order their champions to meet once a year, or every two years, in a four-man tournament to establish a true world champion.

The losers could keep their respective organizational titles, but there would be only one world champion per weight class. The four alphabet groups wouldn't have to give up their regional belts, which serve a purpose in giving the lesser-skilled fighters something to shoot for. Nothing wrong with that.

Of course, that would mean giving up all those world title sanctioning fees, not to mention those summit conferences in Cancun or wherever.

In other words, at least three of them would probably go out of business, which, of course, would be the best solution to the confusion they have brought upon themselves, and why they'll never agree to a "sole world champion."

All that talk about a tournament of champions, you see, is primarily to give the appearance of working in the best interests of boxing, which should be their sole purpose.

But they have no intention of killing their golden goose, you see. They would much prefer killing the sport first, which they will ultimately do if their greed goes unchecked.

WBO junior middleweight champ Demetrius Andrade, who lives in Providence and trains in New Bedford, will be watching Saturday night's PPV fight between Saul "Canelo" Alvarez and Erislandy Lara very closely, as his next title defense could be against the winner.

Alvarez, you may recall, lost his WBC belt to Floyd Mayweather and is eager for a shot at either of the other two world champions, Andrade or IBF king Carlos Molina.

Lara, the WBA "regular" champ (Mayweather is the "super" champ), would also like to add Andrade's WBO belt, which would also put him in the sweepstakes for a big payday with Mayweather (everybody wants to fight Mayweather, not because they think they can beat him, but because he's the box office king, as well as the pound-for-pound king).

Star Boxing president Joe DeGuardia now has two world champions in Andrade and Chris Algieri, of Long Island, New York, the WBO junior welterweight champion, and he has big plans for both of them.

"The plan is to fight the biggest and best out there," DeGuardia told Fightnews.com. "For Algieri that means trying to land a shot against Manny Pacquiao, and for Demetrius, it is trying to lure any big name into the ring with him."

Meanwhile, I like Alvarez to beat Lara, mainly by outworking the Cuban, who tends to be a little lazy in the ring. Lara drew with Molina in 2011 in a fight many thought Molina won. He also had a technical draw with Vanes Martirosyan in a fight that was stopped because of a cut.

I shouldn't even bother to mention this, but for the record, Ruslan Chagaev (33-2-1) won a majority decision over Fres Oquendo (37-8) on Sunday night to win the vacant (they got that right) "regular" WBA heavyweight title in a rather listless bout in Grozny of the Chechen Republic in Russia, that saw the 35-year-old Chagaev tire badly in the last two rounds.

This is a good example of what I was talking about earlier — bogus world titles. Suffice it to say Chagaev lost a lopsided decision to reigning champ Wladimir Klitschko in 2009.

Add Terence "Bud" Crawford to the growing list of exciting young champions.